Whatever comes to mind, and then the interesting directions that thought will take you on the web.

Tuesday, July 05, 2011

Voice Mail Purgatory

My iPhone 4 power switch broke recently. Apple very generously replaced the iPhone even when it was a few days out of warranty.

The restore from backup worked great. I hadn't encrypted the backup, so I had to re-enter passwords - a minor inconvenience.

Unfortunately, I was continually alerted to needing to enter my voicemail password. I tried the usual suspects for the password, but none of them worked.

I accessed the self-service for so-called Premier business customer, and there was a very useful looking menu item: "Reset Voicemail Password"

Unfortunately, there was the not-so-useful message to call a number.

Being the long weekend, I had to endure this extremely annoying popup for 3 days before I could call.

So, I called the number, and the voice system gave me the following options:

Activate Wireless Service

Assistance with an Existing Order

Assistance with using Premier Website

Billing Questions

Financial Liability Transfer

Repeat these options - press or say 9

Nothing about Voice Mail, and I couldn't even hit zero to speak to a person

So I took my chances and pressed "2", gave my phone number, and spoke to somebody who said that was "Business Support" or something, said to call 800-331-0500, and transferred me to that number.

After a few minute, spoke to somebody. Gave my phone number, name, employer, last 4 of IMEI number. Then miraculously, I could go to the Voice Mail tab in the Phone App on the iPhone, and choose a password. Heaven - no more alerts popping up.

Then the support person said "Do you want me to send you information on how to use the Self Service website?"

"But I know how to use the self service website" I replied - It tells you to call the (wrong) number"

Hence followed a circular discussion - I couldn't make her understand that the self service web site was deficient, and that was why I was calling the number - not that I didn't understand how to use the Self Service Website.